Automatic tooling for in-slot winder

ABSTRACT

An improved multistation automatic bulb inserting in-slot coil winding machine is disclosed having four stator supporting positions each of which is adapted to releasably hold the appropriate number of tooling bulbs in conjunction with a stator. Two stations insert and remove these tooling bulbs and actuate the mechanism within the turn table for securing the bulbs while the other two stations having unique tooling bulb supports which have winding needles for performing the in-slot winding operation.

United States Patent Geber [151 3,685,119 1 Aug. 22, 1972 [54] AUTOMATICTOOLING FOR lN-SLOT WINDER [72] Inventor: Eugene E. G eber, Box 78,Ossian,

Ind. 46777 [73] Assignee: Industra Products, Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind.

22 Filed: Sept. 30, 1970 21 Appl.No.: 76,862

52 U.S.Cl. ..29/20s1), '242/1.1 R 51 rm. Cl. ..H02k 15/06 [58 Field ofSearch ..29/205 D, 205R, 205 C;-

[56] References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,025,008 3/1962 Nill etal ..242'/ 1.1 R

Primary Examiner-Thomas H. Eager Attorney-Jeffers and Rickert 571ABSTRACT- An improved multistation automatic bulb inserting inslot coilwinding machine is disclosed having four stator supporting positionseach of which is adapted to releasably hold the appropriate number oftooling bulbs in conjunction with a stator. Two stations insert andremove these tooling bulbs and actuate the mechanism within the turntable for securing the bulbs while the other two stations having uniquetooling bulb supports which have winding needles for performing thein-slot winding operation.

18 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED I973 3.685.119

sum 2 or 4 v INVENTOR EUGENE E. GEBER TTORNEYS PATENTEB B I972 73.685119 sum 3 [IF 4 F l G".- 4"

. INVENTORY EUGENE E. GEBER BY MW TORNEYS PATENTEUMIB I912 3.685. 1 19SHEEI u or 4 C) as F GT 5 INVENTOR EUGENE E. GEBER ORNEYS 1 AUTOMATICTOOLING FOR IN-SLOT WINDER CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Thepresent application utilizes the mechanical drive linkage disclosed inapplicants copending application entitled DRIVE FOR IN-SLOT WINDINGMACHIN- E filed Sept. 30, 1970, Ser. No. 76,697 and assigned to theassignee of the present invention to drive the two winding needleslocated at the winding stations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION does not however provide any clear systemfor inserting, gripping and removing these tooling bulbs.

The nature of the in-slot winding operation and the desirability ofproviding tooling bulbs is well illustrated by the aforementioned Nillet al. patent. ,A winding ,head which may have a single wire dispensingneedle or several wire dispensing needles, four as shown in Nill being auseful and practical arrangement, execute an axial motion while theneedle is dispensing wire in the stator slot and then executes acombined axial and rotary motion so as to form an end turn in the coiland begin dispensing wire in a diflerent stator slot in the oppositedirection. The process is repeated for example, the needle passingupwardly in a given stator slot then forming a loop and an endturn ofwire and passing downwardly in an adjacent stator slot and hence forminga second or bottom end turn so as to be able to again pass upwardly inthe original stator slot. In many stators, the wire at the upper andlower endsof the stator which serves to connect the two stator slots inwhich wire is being laid will interfere with or partially block thestator bore. Tooling bulbs are provided in the stator to ensure thatthis wire does not block the stator bore and to properly form these endturns during the winding operation.

It is also known in the prior art to insert the bulb portions which formthe end turns below the stator from below the stator and to insert thebulb portions for the upper end turns from above the stator however noprior art scheme provides for the automatic insertion and locking oftooling bulbs having integral upper and lower end turn forming portions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an automatedscheme for inserting and locking tooling bulbs in winding position in astator supporting turntable, then revolving that turntable to an in-slotwinding location where the stator coils are wound, then returning thethus wound stator and end turn forming bulbs to a location where thebulbs are automatically unlocked and removed such that the only handoperation required is the insertion and removal of the unwound and woundstator respectively.

It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide animproved in-slot coil winding machine.

It is another object of the present invention to automate the insertionand removal of tooling bulbs.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bulbinserting and locking scheme.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a multistationwinding machine having improved automatic tooling features.

The foregoing features are particularly useful in the winding of shadedpole motors and accordingly it is a 0 salient object of the presentinvention to provide an improved automated shaded pole stator windingmachine.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention willappear more clearly from the following detailed disclosure read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

' BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of amultistation automatic in-slot coil winding machine according to theteachings of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of one of the four turntable locations of FIG. 1; v

FIG. 3 is a top view similar to FIG."2 showing a stator and a pair oftooling bulbs in position;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the bulb inserting head; and

FIG. 5 shows the variable stator height provision in the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The perspective view of FIG. 1illustrates a four station automatic in-slot coil winding machineaccording to the teachings of the present invention. The machine has atwo level turntable 11 which supports four stator supporting locations13, 15, 17 and -19 which are identical in their fundamental structureand each of which is shown in position over a corresponding station ofthe machine. In the present preferred embodiment, the two locations nearthe front, that is 17 and 19 are locations at which a stator will beinserted, the tooling bulbs will be inserted and locked in position andfrom which, after the turntable has indexed twice about its axis 25, thetooling bulbs will be removed and the completed wound stator removed.The two rearward locations, that is l3, 15 are over respective windingheads 21 and 23 which, as illustrated, simultaneously in-slot wind fourcoils in the stators. The structure beneath the two winding heads 21 and23 is basically that described in my aforementioned application Ser. No.76,697 entitled DRIVE FOR IN-SLOT WIND- ING MACHINE while the structurebeneath the two forward locations will be described in greater detail inreference to FIG. 4.

While the specific step performed at a given station may be modified andvaried within the scope of the present invention, the specific preferredembodiment herein disclosed contemplates the two front stations as beingidentical and the two rear stations as being ide ntical with theturntable being indexed at the end of each cycle of the mechanism. Thus,each of the two front stations would have a bulb inserting head 27 ofFIG. 4 and each of these heads would be connected to the primary sourceof power within the winding machine to be moved axially along its axis29, to be rotated slightly about that axis 29, and to have the centrallylocated gear 31 turn-so as to revolve each of the tooling bulbssubstantially 180. The system must of course be programmed so that eachof these motions occurs at the proper time. The bulb inserting headitself is seen to have an internal driving gear 31 and the appropriatenumber of driven gears 33 so as to rotate each of the same number ofbulb supporting rotatable dovetail slot means 35. It should be clearfrom FIG. 4 that the axis 29 as well as the four axes about which therotatable dovetail slot means 35 rotate are parallel. The supports 35 ofcourse mate with corresponding flaring tenon portions 37 on the lowerend of each of the tooling bulbs. The tooling bulbs themselves are seento have a pair of bulb ends 39 and 41 which are for positioning andforming the end turns of a stator winding and the tenon portion 37 isseen to be on the back side of the lower bulb portion so that inoperation this tenon portion will not interfere with the end turnforming function. The configuration of the middle portion of thesetooling bulbs in arbitrary except as will appear in conjunction with thediscussion of FIG. 2 and serves only to connect and maintain therelative position of the two bulb ends.

Turning now to FIG. 2 which illustrates a top view of one of the fourturntable locations without a stator or any of the tooling associatedwith the station over which this location might be at a particular time.It should be noted that FIG. 3 is an almost identical view, however, astator, a pair of tooling bulbs and the bulb inserting head are alsoillustrated in FIG. 3. It should further be noted that the turntable 1 1of FIG. 1 is a two level turntable and each of the levels will have thebasic structure of FIG. 2, that is this structure is repeated both aboveand below a stator. The structure of FIG. 2 performs the basic functionof holding thetooling bulbs in position once they have been inserted bythe bulb inserting head of FIG. 4. This structure has a set of radiallysliding hooks 43 and a set of radially sliding retainers 45 which asnoted earlier are duplicated on both the upper and lower levels of theturntable. There are as many separate sliding hooks 43 on the upperlevel of the turntable as there are bulbs to be secured in the turntableand there will be a similar number of sliding retainers in each level ofthe turntable for a given location, thus, to be specific, the location17 would have four sliding hooks 43 and four sliding retainers 45 on itsupper level and would have four sliding hooks and four sliding retainerson its lower level if the machine were designed to insert and hold fourtooling bulbs for the winding of a four pole machine. The hooks 43 areslid radially simultaneously by the revolution of the annular ring 47and the corresponding lower set of hooks is identically actuated by acorresponding annular ring, the upper and lower annular rings beingactuated by a series of pins 49 so that all hooks and all retainers movetogether. In a preferred embodiment, the upper and lower levels of theturntable may be moved together or apart each moving an equal distancefrom a center line between them and in opposite directions so as toallow the winding of stators of different lengths by the simpleexpedient of using tooling bulbs of the appropriate length and adjustingtwo levels of the turntable accordingly. For this universal type ofembodiment, the upper and lower annular rings pass over the pins 49 butare slidable on those pins in the direction of the axis of those pins.If the ring 47 were to be rotated counterclockwise from its presentposition, a pin 51 riding in a slot 53 would follow that slot and thusslide the hook 43 radially outward so as to clear the central portion ofthe location. In a precisely similar manner, the sliding retainers 45communicate by means of pins 55 with a slot 57 in an inner annular ring59 and rotation of that inner annular ring in a clockwise direction asillustrated in FIG. 2 results in the retracting radially outwardly ofthe retainers 45. Thus, with the annular ring 47 rotatedcounterclockwise as far as it may travel and the annular ring 59 rotatedclockwise as far as it may travel both the book 43 and the retainer 45will be retracted from the central aperture in this loca-' tion so as toallow the insertionor removal of a stator 61 shown in FIG. 3. I

Referring now to FIG. 3, the same basic structure of the upper level ofthe turntable location illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown carrying likereference numerals. To progress from FIG. 2 to FIG. 3 several steps arerequired. Beginning with FIG. 2 the sliding retainers 45 must beretracted by rotating the annular ring 59 in a clockwise direction. Thenthe radially sliding hooks 43 must be retracted by sliding the annularring 47 in a counterclockwise direction. At this time, a stator 61 isplaced in this turntable location and supported in a position where thelower level turntable hooks and retainers may slide radially below thestator while the upper level hooks and retainers for that same locationwill slide radially above that stator. Once the stator is supported inposition on the turntable, the bulb inserting head 27 carrying thetooling bulbs and having the slot means 35 and the tooling bulbs in theorientation illustrated in FIG. 4, that is where the actual surfaces ofthe bulb portions are turned 180 away from the direction in which theymust face for winding, is inserted.

The bulb inserting head travels upwardly carrying the tooling bulbsthrough the bore of the stator and stopping at a point where the notches63 are at the same level as the upper retaining and hook means while thenotches 65 of FIG. 4 are at the same level as the corresponding slidingretaining and hook means of the lower level of the turntable. At thispoint, the driving gear 31 is rotated so as to turn each of the drivengears 33 associated with a tooling bulb through so that the bulbs nowtake on the position shown in FIG. 3. Assuming the proper angularorientation of the bulb inserting head which would in practice beslightly counterclockwise from that actually illustrated in FIG. 3 thenext step is to rotate the annular ring 47 in a clockwise direction sothat the hooks 43 slide radially inward. At this point, a slightclockwise rotation of the bulb inserting head 27 about its axis 29 willbring the bulb into hooking engagement with the sliding hooks. The nextstep is to rotate the annular ring 59 in a counterclockwise direction soas to cause the radially sliding retainers 45 to move toward the centerand lock the tooling bulbs in their winding position. At this time, thebulb inserting head may be moved downwardly away from the stator butleaving the bulbs in winding position in the turntable.

Assuming now that the foregoing sequence of events has occurred for bothof the forward locations 17 and 19 preferably in a simultaneous fashion,once the bulb inserting head 27 is clear of the turntable structure thisturntable would index 180 so that the two locations 17 and 19 containinga stator and the tooling bulbs locked in position would be presented tothe two winding locations at the rear of the machine. The two windingheads 21 and 23 would then perform an in-slot winding operation while atthe same time two unwound stators would be inserted in the frontlocations and tooling bulbs inserted and locked within those statorsaccording to the foregoing sequence. When the winding operation at therear locations as well as the bulb inserting operation at the frontlocations is completed and both the forward bulb inserting heads and therear winding heads are lowered so as to be clear of the turntable thatturntable again indexes 180, a winding operation is begun on the statorsat the two rear locations and the completed stators which were woundduring the preceding step are removed by reversing the bulb insertingsequence. A new pair of stators are placed in the forward locations andthe entire sequence of events repeats itself.

Turning now to FIG. 5 broken away portions of the two levels of theturntable 11 are illustratedin cross section as being joined by athreaded member 66. As discussed earlier, the winding machine to beversatile must be capable of handling stators of different heights whichmay be accomplished by varying the separation between the two levels ofthe turntable. To be compatible with the winding mechanism, it isdesirable when effecting this variation in the separation of the twolevels to move the top level of the turntable upward and the lower levelof the turntable downward in equal amounts so that the two levels areuniformly distributed above and below a hypothetical fixed center plane.Also as noted earlier, the pins 49 should be made slidable relative toone or preferably both of the turntable levels so that this adjustmentmay be easily efi'ected. The actual adjustment of the separation betweenthe two turntable levels is effected by the threaded member 66 which hasa first threaded portion 68 and a second threaded portion 70 engagingthe upper level of the turntable and some support element 72respectively. If the pitch of the threaded portion 68 is made to bedouble that of the threaded portion 70 rotation of the member 66 in onedirection will result in the lowering of the lower level of theturntable and the corresponding raising of the upper level of theturntable so that their respective distances from a hypothetical centerplane remain equal. The specific scheme shown in FIG. 5 requires thatthe lower level of the turntable be rotatably affixed to the member 66.It should be clear from this drawing that various combinations ofdifferently pitched left or right hand threads might be used to engageany combination of the upper and lower levels of the turntable and thesupport member to effect the same result. v

While the present invention has been described with respect to aspecific embodiment, numerous modifica tions will suggest themselves tothose of ordinary skill in the art. Thus while a four station structurehas been disclosed, it is clear that a two station machine having onebulb inserting and removing location and one winding location couldeasily be constructed in light of the foregoing specification.Similarly, a three station location one of which inserted the bulbs inan unwound stator, one of which performed the winding operation and thethird of which removed the bulbs from a completed stator is clearlywithin the scope of the present invention as is a three station machinewhere different winding operations occur at each of two of the stationsand the third station serves to both insert and remove the bulbs. Itwould also be desirable to provide the two front stations with avertically movable stator support structure so that a completed statorwould be moved upwardly somewhat after completion of a removal of thetooling bulbs so as to make that stator easily accessible to an operatorfor removal. Other modifications will suggest themselves to those ofordinary skill in the art and accordingly the scope of the presentinvention is to be measured only by that of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A multistation automatic in-slot coil winding machine comprisingz" aplurality of tooling bulbs, each having a pair of bulb ends forpositioning the end turns of a stator winda turntable adapted to supportat least one stator and to revolve so as to sequentially present astator to each station; 7

means at a first station for removably supporting the plurality oftooling bulbs and for axially inserting the plurality of tooling bulbsinto the stator;

means mounted on said turntable for securing said bulbs in windingposition relative to said stator; and

means at a second station for winding one or more coils within saidstator.

2. The machine of claim 1 wherein said machine is a two station machine,said bulbs being removed at said first station from a wound stator andreinserted at said first station into a stator to be wound.

3. The machine of claim 1 wherein said machine is an at least threestation machine, said bulbs being removed from a wound stator at a thirdstation different from said first and second stations.

4. The machine of claim 2 wherein said first station includes means foractuating said securing means after said bulbs are in winding position,and means for deactuating said securing means prior to the removal ofsaid bulbs from a wound stator.

5. The machine of claim 1 wherein said first station includes means foractuating said securing means after said bulbs are in winding position.

6. The machine of claim 3 wherein said third station includes means fordeactuating said securing means prior to said bulbs being removed from awound stator.

7. The machine of claim 6 wherein said first station includes means foractuating said securing means after said bulbs are in winding position.

8. The machine of claim 1 wherein said means for axially insertingcomprises:

a plurality of rotatable dovetail slot means for supporting the toolingbulbs each said rotatable dovetail slot means having an axis of rotationparallel to that of the others;

a flaring tenon portion on one end of each of said tooling bulbs wherebysaid bulbs may have their tenon portion inserted into and thus besupported by said slot means by relative movement of said bulb and saidslot means in the direction of said axes; and

means for simultaneously moving said plurality of slot means in thedirection of said axes whereby said bulbs may be placed in and removedfrom winding position relative to said stator.

9. The machine of claim 8 further comprising means interconnecting saidplurality of rotatable slots for simultaneous rotation thereof wherebysaid bulbs may. be supported in a first orientation for passage throughthe bore of said stator and then simultaneously rotated into windingposition.

10. The machine of claim 1 wherein said means for securing comprisesfirst and second sets of radial sliding hook means and first and secondsets of radial sliding retaining means, one of each of said setsradially sliding above said stator and the other of each of said setsradially sliding below said stator, and wherein a hook and a retainer isprovided above said stator for each bulb and a corresponding hook andretainer is provided below said stator for each bulb, a hook engaging aportion of a bulb and a retainer preventing the movement of a bulb outof a hook.

11. The machine of claim 9 wherein said means for securing comprisesfirst and second sets of radial sliding hook means and first and secondsets of radial sliding retaining means, one of each-of said setsradially sliding above said stator and the other of each of said setsradially sliding below said stator, and wherein a hook and a retainer isprovided above said stator for each bulb and a corresponding hook andretainer is provided below said stator for each bulb, a hook engaging aportion of a bulb and a retainer preventing the movement of a bulb outof a hook.

12. The machine of claim 10 further comprising:

a first pair of annular rings rotatably mounted above said turntable andconcentric with the axis of the bore of said stator;

a second pair of annular rings rotatably mounted below said turntableand concentric with the axis of the; bore of said stator; I

said first pair of annular rings lying in a plane somewhat above saidstator and said second pair of annular rings lying in a plane somewhatbelow said stator;

means connecting one of said first pair of annular rings and acorresponding one of said second pair of annular rings to said radialsliding hooks;

means connecting the other of said first pair of annular rings and acorresponding one of said second pair of annular rings to said radialsliding retaining means whereby rotary motion of a given annular ringresults in radial sliding motion of the corresponding radial slidingelement.

13. The machine of claim 1 further comprising a third station identicalto said first station and a fourth station identical to said secondstation, said bulbs being removed at said first and third stations froma wound stator and reinserted at said first and third stations into astator to be wound.

14. The machine of claim 13 wherein said second and fourth stationscomprise a shaft adapted to execute a combined rotary and axial motionand a needle disposed on one end of said shaft and adapted to d' wir an'n-sl t 'ndin o ration said axial nib 'ri n ifi said shaft s being alongth axes of the bores of stators located at said second and fourthstations.

15. The machine of claim 14 further comprising means for indexing saidturntable substantially 180 after each winding operation.

16. The machine of claim 1 wherein said machine is an at least threestation machine, a separate winding operation being performed at a thirdstation different from said first and second stations.

17. The machine of claim 1 wherein said turntable comprises upper andlower levels further comprising means for varying the separation betweensaid upper level and said lower level whereby stators of differentheights may be accommodated.

18. A multistation automatic in-slot coil winding machine comprising:

a plurality of tooling bulbs;

a turntable having upper and lower levels and adapted to support atleast one stator and to revolve so as to sequentially present a statorto each station;

means at a first station removably supporting the plurality of toolingbulbs and for axially inserting the plurality of tooling bulbs into thestator;

means mounted on each said turntable level for securing said bulbs inwinding position relative to the stator;

means for varying the separation between said turntable levels so as toadapt the machine to a stator of a different height; and

means at a second station for winding one or more coils within saidstator.

Patent Column Column Column Column Column Column Column (SEAL) AttestEDWARD M FLETCHER,JR

Attesting Officer 1, line 3, line 3, line line line line

line

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTEFICATE ()F CORRECTION Dated August 22.1972 Inventor(s) Eugne E. Geber It is certified that error appears inthe above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are herebycorrected as shown below:

Title of the Invention, after "Automatic" insert Bulb Inserting 0 Y IAbstract, line 1, after "automatic", omit bulb inserting Abstract, line5, after "stations" insert having unique tooling bulb supports which 7Abstract, line 8, after "stations" omit'a having unique tooling bulbsupports which "The" should be This "in", first occurrence, should be is"the" omitted between "adjusting" and "two" "bulb" should be bulbs"downwardly" should be downward u "a" should be the 38, after "station"insert for'--- Signed and sealed this 9th day of January 1973.

ROBERT GOTTSCHALK Commissioner of Patents

1. A multistation automatic in-slot coil winding machine comprising: aplurality of tooling bulbs, each having a pair of bulb ends forpositioning the end turns of a stator winding; a turntable adapted tosupport at least one stator and to revolve so as to sequentially presenta stator to each station; means at a first station for removablysupporting the plurality of tooling bulbs and for axially inserting theplurality of tooling bulbs into the stator; means mounted on saidturntable for securing said bulbs in winding position relative to saidstator; and means at a second station for winding one or more coilswithin said stator.
 2. The machine of claim 1 wherein said machine is atwo station machine, said bulbs being removed at said first station froma wound stator and reinserted at said first station into a stator to bewound.
 3. The machine of claim 1 wherein said machine is an at leastthree station machine, said bulbs being removed from a wound stator at athird station different from said first and second stations.
 4. Themachine of claim 2 wherein said first station includes means foractuating said securing means after said bulbs are in winding position,and means for deactuating said securing means prior to the removal ofsaid bulbs from a wound stator.
 5. The machine of claim 1 wherein saidfirst station includes means for actuating said securing means aftersaid bulbs are in winding positioN.
 6. The machine of claim 3 whereinsaid third station includes means for deactuating said securing meansprior to said bulbs being removed from a wound stator.
 7. The machine ofclaim 6 wherein said first station includes means for actuating saidsecuring means after said bulbs are in winding position.
 8. The machineof claim 1 wherein said means for axially inserting comprises: aplurality of rotatable dovetail slot means for supporting the toolingbulbs each said rotatable dovetail slot means having an axis of rotationparallel to that of the others; a flaring tenon portion on one end ofeach of said tooling bulbs whereby said bulbs may have their tenonportion inserted into and thus be supported by said slot means byrelative movement of said bulb and said slot means in the direction ofsaid axes; and means for simultaneously moving said plurality of slotmeans in the direction of said axes whereby said bulbs may be placed inand removed from winding position relative to said stator.
 9. Themachine of claim 8 further comprising means interconnecting saidplurality of rotatable slots for simultaneous rotation thereof wherebysaid bulbs may be supported in a first orientation for passage throughthe bore of said stator and then simultaneously rotated into windingposition.
 10. The machine of claim 1 wherein said means for securingcomprises first and second sets of radial sliding hook means and firstand second sets of radial sliding retaining means, one of each of saidsets radially sliding above said stator and the other of each of saidsets radially sliding below said stator, and wherein a hook and aretainer is provided above said stator for each bulb and a correspondinghook and retainer is provided below said stator for each bulb, a hookengaging a portion of a bulb and a retainer preventing the movement of abulb out of a hook.
 11. The machine of claim 9 wherein said means forsecuring comprises first and second sets of radial sliding hook meansand first and second sets of radial sliding retaining means, one of eachof said sets radially sliding above said stator and the other of each ofsaid sets radially sliding below said stator, and wherein a hook and aretainer is provided above said stator for each bulb and a correspondinghook and retainer is provided below said stator for each bulb, a hookengaging a portion of a bulb and a retainer preventing the movement of abulb out of a hook.
 12. The machine of claim 10 further comprising: afirst pair of annular rings rotatably mounted above said turntable andconcentric with the axis of the bore of said stator; a second pair ofannular rings rotatably mounted below said turntable and concentric withthe axis of the bore of said stator; said first pair of annular ringslying in a plane somewhat above said stator and said second pair ofannular rings lying in a plane somewhat below said stator; meansconnecting one of said first pair of annular rings and a correspondingone of said second pair of annular rings to said radial sliding hooks;means connecting the other of said first pair of annular rings and acorresponding one of said second pair of annular rings to said radialsliding retaining means whereby rotary motion of a given annular ringresults in radial sliding motion of the corresponding radial slidingelement.
 13. The machine of claim 1 further comprising a third stationidentical to said first station and a fourth station identical to saidsecond station, said bulbs being removed at said first and thirdstations from a wound stator and reinserted at said first and thirdstations into a stator to be wound.
 14. The machine of claim 13 whereinsaid second and fourth stations comprise a shaft adapted to execute acombined rotary and axial motion and a needle disposed on one end ofsaid shaft and adapted to dispense wire in an in-slot winding operation,said axial motion of said shafts being along the axes of the bores ofstators located at said second and fourth stations.
 15. The machine ofclaim 14 further comprising means for indexing said turntablesubstantially 180* after each winding operation.
 16. The machine ofclaim 1 wherein said machine is an at least three station machine, aseparate winding operation being performed at a third station differentfrom said first and second stations.
 17. The machine of claim 1 whereinsaid turntable comprises upper and lower levels further comprising meansfor varying the separation between said upper level and said lower levelwhereby stators of different heights may be accommodated.
 18. Amultistation automatic in-slot coil winding machine comprising: aplurality of tooling bulbs; a turntable having upper and lower levelsand adapted to support at least one stator and to revolve so as tosequentially present a stator to each station; means at a first stationremovably supporting the plurality of tooling bulbs and for axiallyinserting the plurality of tooling bulbs into the stator; means mountedon each said turntable level for securing said bulbs in winding positionrelative to the stator; means for varying the separation between saidturntable levels so as to adapt the machine to a stator of a differentheight; and means at a second station for winding one or more coilswithin said stator.